


Conquering the Cities of Light

by TheTartWitch



Series: Angel Feathers [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Agender Charles, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Nemesis, Charles is Athena and Nemesis' child, Erik is Hephaestus and Aries' son, F/F, F/M, Godkin are the children of two gods, M/M, Multi, Mutant powers are demigod powers, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 06:03:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6553894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nemesis chooses demigods who have died before doing anything truly great or who deserve another chance and puts them in charge of another demigod's life, to prove themselves and their charge worthy of the greatest afterlife, Elysium. Charles has been assigned Erik Lehnsherr, a fellow godkin, and xe has a plan.<br/>It involves a certain Titan taking over Olympus and a certain son of Poseidon clearing the way. If Charles can get Erik to the top and defeat the Time Lord, xe can ensure their futures.<br/>And the Brotherhood isn't a bad addition to the plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

They're watching the small boy intently. He's small, true, almost scrawny, but there's lean muscle on his bones from working and playing and fighting, and if the bigger boys and girl can't see that they'll be in trouble. Charles squints down at xir clipboard, comparing the picture of the boy on his first day of school to now, and there's no mistake; this is Erik Lehnsherr, adopted by Edie and Jakob Lehnsherr, living (embarrassing) evidence of a one-night tryst between Ares and Hephaestus from when Aphrodite was sulking. Charles rolls xir eyes.  _ Godly politics. Honestly. _

He's going to win this fight, right now, against these bullies, because it will have the dual effect of beginning to even his scales and making him stronger. And looking over this boy's file, Charles  can believe this boy (Erik) is going to need to be strong.

Xe waits until the first punch is thrown and whispers in Erik's mind to focus on the metal studs in the puncher's ears, watching Erik's eyes light up with intelligence and cunning and the way all three bullies stumble back with their spines bent. 

Then Charles has to go, but xe promises themself they'll watch this boy forever.

Erik is seventeen now, battling for his life against a minor lake deity with expert steps when Charles appears, mouth already smiling with the exertion of it. He finishes the mangled creature off with a clench of his fists and a tug of the iron in its blood, and Charles can't help but watch xir boy fondly. He's already strong, but something wild is coming and Erik's wildness, while strong and cunning and biting, won't be enough to keep it at bay. There's been a child, xe whispers in Erik's mind, you'll need him to survive if you want to live, my Erik. The babe would be about five now, just the age for Erik to claim it as his. 

The first steps are made then, towards a future with a different destiny and different scales.

 

Erik has a degree in engineering and technology, thankfully, and by some quark of nature Charles had convinced him to get a teaching degree so as to find the child in its school when the time came. They settled down at the child’s soon-to-be boarding school, Erik becoming a wonderfully strict and gruff but caring instructor to his students. A few of them turned out to be demigods as well: Alex Summers, son of Apollo; Raven Darkholme, daughter of Aphrodite; Angel Salvadore, daughter of Zeus; Scott Summers, Alex’s younger brother and also son of Apollo; and a few others. Admittedly a few of them were fortunate finds, and Charles instructed Erik on how to gather them together and make them a team for when the time comes. Their Nemesis were friendly, too; Alex’s Darwin, Scott’s Sean and Raven’s Hank were pretty cute, as far as adolescent Nemesis were, but Angel’s Emma was Charles’ most interesting subject. She spoke directly into Angel’s head, a calculating stream of intelligent advice to her little dragonfly girl, but when Charles tried to dip inside her thoughts to get a read on them xe was surprised to find a diamond-encrusted wall, shattering his advances. Xe pulls back, laughing, and immediately makes Erik watch this girl with caution. She’d be a good ally, but something tells them that’s not going to actually be the case here. 

When the child ( _ a boy _ ) finally shows, he’s coddled by Erik’s team. Admittedly he doesn’t realize this, but Erik’s team is good at working in the shadows. They know they have to keep the newest professor, Brunner, from catching Percy alone and they take pride in being good at just that. 

Erik, however, meets up with Percy. He earns the boy’s trust, becomes his friend, learns about the boy’s home life (it infuriates him until Charles informs him in the soothing voice of his subconscious that everyone gets what’s coming to them sooner or later. Or they will when Charles and Erik’s plan succeeds), and when the boy sees something odd and frightening at a museum field trip he goes straight to Erik.

Erik sits Percy down and explains everything: the summer camp, the monsters, Percy’s father, and Brunner, and all the while Charles is curling his body (in the shape of a lion-sized housecat) around Percy’s little raven-topped Nemesis, Nico, for comfort. 

Erik gives Percy a choice: join Erik and the Brotherhood on an epic roadtrip to learn and get stronger, or go to the summer camp and learn with Brunner’s group of coddled children. Erik’s kind about it: he shows Percy the pros and cons of each situation and when the Brotherhood files into the room, excited and raring to go, he introduces them. Charles quietly slips Nico’s name into each of their minds and vice versa; it wouldn’t do for Nemesis to not know others of their kind, not in this sort of situation. 

Percy choses Erik and the Brotherhood, and they cheer with the kind of enthusiasm that comes from waiting years for the fun to begin, and then finding out it’s suddenly a free-for-all at the carnival. 

 

It’s a roadtrip, like Erik explained, with the money from Raven’s disinterested mother’s inheritance footing the bill. Percy still has Brunner’s pen-sword which is, admittedly, the coolest thing Erik’s seen in a while, and Charles delights in xir charge’s childish energy. 

Percy trains alongside the Brotherhood as Erik shows them how to hit, how to use their talents for their own benefit on the battlefield. True, he’s no child of Athena, but he still gives good advice from experience and that’s all this ragtag group really needs. 

Percy and the Brotherhood gains profiency, building on their earlier skills, and the monsters attracted to Percy’s aura serve as target practice for the rest, with Erik there to act as coach and buffer by tugging the monster’s metal weapons and body parts away at crucial moments. Gradually he eases off and they find themselves defeating powerful monsters by themselves. Charles is immensely proud of them all and tells the other Nemesis so, watching them preen and direct their charges’ luck with skill and satisfaction.

Percy meets others of his kind outside the Brotherhood quite a bit, too. They recruit some, like Toad or Sabretooth, but others they train a bit and then direct towards the camp. Over the years they gain a mission ( _ protect our kind from anything that seeks to harm us _ ) and a legend ( _ traveling heroes, mighty warriors who’ll help you out for nothing _ ) and Charles is pleased to find xir range is growing, allowing them to hear the pleas easier and easier. Xir gift is useful to Erik and that makes him preen. Once he hears Erik directing Percy to listen to ‘the little voice inside him, because the advice is always good and interesting, at the very least’, and it makes them proud to know Erik values xir talents.

 

After a few years they’re called upon to act. It’s the time for Charles’ plan to go into effect and xe’s ready for everything to begin. Xe prods Erik into action and leads the Brotherhood into action beside Chiron’s forces. The general is a blonde girl with dusty streaks of warpaint and a quiet girl with a battle-hardened smile for a Nemesis. The girl is Bianca, and she and Nico seem to know each other somehow; they glance at each other with confused eyes and wandering thoughts but never say a word between them. Percy stands beside the girl and proclaims, in the space of Mount Olympus that flits between the elevator and the marbled floors, that when the battle is won he is going to try living at the camp or exploring with her, and Erik and Charles know what that spark in his eyes is, so they agree to let him go. He was never a prisoner, anyway, he just had to be ready for this moment.

Kronos’ soul is hunched inside the blond boy’s and Charles knows there’s something of the boy left inside, but not enough to regain his life; he’d be a vegetable. At least in death there’s a chance for something more in him.

 

Percy fights and wins, barely. Charles feels Erik’s upset coupled with the knowledge that if  _ he  _ sat on either of his fathers’ thrones they’d vaporize him immediately, even knowing who he is. Perhaps because of it; that must have been an embarrassing period of their lives to explain to the female counterpart of their triad. 

The gods and goddesses arrive in the throne room, looking proud and courteous to each other but rumpled artfully. Charles barely feels the brush of xir mother’s want for attention as xe watches Erik congradulate the Brotherhood on their fighting skill and prowess and asks if they’d like to continue the life they had with him or ‘make something of themselves’, as Erik puts it with a sheepish grin. Charles can see Percy watching their little gathering with a wistful expression but the boy xe and Erik practically raised makes no move away from the blonde’s side, and over their shoulders Charles can see Nico and Bianca circling each other warily, still stuck in the loop of knowing each other from somewhere and being  _ so close  _ to figuring it out before the memories flee them again. 

Emma and Angel proved themselves trustworthy, Charles and Erik both agree on this, and they promise to reward them by not acknowledging their suspicions ever again unless a reason for it comes up. 

When the gods seat themselves, Zeus startles all the demigods by first admitting the gods needed help and that the demigods were excellent warriors. Erik’s mouth falls open at that, and Charles laughingly wills it shut again, sending a reminder to Erik about flies buzzing inside of it. 

“For our first reward,” Zeus begins, “the masterminds behind Mount Olympus surviving Kronos’ invasion: Erik Lehnsherr, son of Hephaestus and Aries, and his Nemesis, Charles Xavier, child of Athena and Nemesis.” 

And as the other children look to Erik in astonishment and confusion, he looks to his fathers. He’s honestly startled to find them watching him with pride and guilt. Then his mind rewinds to the second half of Zeus’ proclamation, ‘ _ his Nemesis, Charles Xavier, child of Athena and Nemesis _ ’ and he freezes. That voice in the back of his head, quiet and laughing and so, so clever; Charles is a fitting name. 

There’s a fluttering noise behind him, and he knows it’s rude to look away from Zeus when he’s speaking to the rest of the Brotherhood and then to Percy, but he turns to look and just. He just.

There’s an angel behind him, brilliant cream wings flaring in a leisurely stretch, and there are more behind that one, the room’s full of them now, but somehow this particular one is the only one that matters. 

“Hello, Erik,” says the angel nervously, wings shaking a bit, and Erik’s breathless for a bit before he replies.

“Hello, Charles,” he whispers, smiling and awed and a little broken, but this person is  _ his _ , has been  _ his  _ since so long ago, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to let go. “Is there anything I should know?”

“I’m… not a man,” Charles begins, eyebrows scrunching thoughtfully, petulantly, before saying quickly, “I’m not a woman either! I don’t know exactly yet. You can call me ‘xe’ or ‘xir’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘his’, though.” In Erik’s mind, the words echo and he forcefully implants them into his memory, vowing not to forget. 

“Alright,” he says easily, and adds, “so how long have you been mine?” 

Charles’ smile lights up the ground between them like Alex’s laser-hoops, and Erik catches himself feeling delighted. 


	2. more crap for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just stuff. filler i guess. "plot".

Charles isn't visible all the time; xe picks and chooses.Xe'salways visible and tangible when it's just xir and Erik alone, but around others it's only around the Brotherhood. Xir mothers come to speak to xir once, about something to do with Erik, but other than thatxe's always a quiet voice in the back of Erik's mind, giving him advice and warning him of danger. 

Erik's made an effort to get to know the Brotherhood's ragtag team of Nemesis as well, though he's not one of them and so can't tell if Emma's by Angel's shoulder or watching them interact from the sky, so he tends to leave that to Charles to let him know. Alex's Darwin has taken to leaping in front of him in battle (even though Nemesis engaging in battle with anyone but another Nemesis is technically forbidden by Charles' mother and their patron, so he usually has to go intangible before the blow can actually hit him), and Charles can sense something happening there, something important, so xe tells Erik to be on the lookout.  

There's always the times they visit Percy at the summer camp where Charles checks in on Nico and Bianca's developing relationship. They're still trying to fight their waythrough Nemesis' veil so they can remember who they were before their deaths but Charles knows that's not going to work; xir mother is nothing if not meticulous in everything she does, even raising xem. Then again, xe has special knowledge the rest don’t, seeing asxe'sNemesis' child. Xe remembers everything from before, an irritating side effect, but not one that can be avoided, so. 

Charles has also caught concentrated snatches of demigod thoughts coming from one specific area and thought to tell Erik of it, but refrained when Nemesis told xir that the balance would need to sort itself out first before any of that could come to light.  

Life as Erik's Nemesis is pretty good so far. Charles doesn't see why xe would change it by upsetting the balance, so xe leaves it. For now.

**Author's Note:**

> I like it. What do you think? Comments, corrections, questions?


End file.
